Loudmouths. You know the type. People who can't stop themselves piping up, most often about themselves and their ideas.

They seem to have taken over the advertising business, don't they?

The people at the top of companies seem to be those most willing to pipe-up on anything and everything. The most well-known creatives in the business at the moment seem to be those who are in the trade press most often, mouthing-off about the latest fad or this week's opinion.

We've even heard some that prominent creative directors are paying PR people to do their personal PR. What a crazy business this is.

Time was, a creative, or anyone in the business, would be known for their work. Not their mug or opinion splashed across industry papers or websites day-in, day-out.

I don't remember the great ad people I looked up to when I came into this business spouting on, week-in, week-out in the trade mags. They let their work do the talking.

If your work doesn't speak for you, maybe you need to look at your work, not hire a PR?

I've met plenty of extremely talented and clever people in this business who are also quiet in character, who don't chase publicity for themselves. But too often these people are overlooked in favour of the loudmouths, even if their work is far stronger.

One argument is that these talented people should become better at promoting themselves.

But I don't see why self-promotion should beat talent and hard work in a creative business. Not if you care about quality, at least.

If we want advertising to be a business full of loudmouth self-promotionalists, we can let things carry on as they are.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the PR-hungry loudmouths have risen to the top of advertising at the same time that there's a dearth of great work coming out of the business?

But then again, maybe it's time we realised that the loudest people don't always have the best ideas, or are the best people to run a department, or a company. Or indeed, not the best spokespeople and figureheads for our business.

I agree George. It's true young creatives often have to be resourceful and smart to get a good 'in', and those qualities are useful in advertising people, but there's a difference between self-promotion and being able to come up with great ideas

Here here from the introvert in the corner. There's an interesting book called Quiet by Susan Cain. It talks about the rise of extroverts, and why business needs a balance of both personality types. I (very quietly, of course) gave my previous, extrovert-promoting boss a copy before I left.

I once heard a great (funny) definition of an introvert from a very talented (and rich) person. He said "That I'd rather stay in than take up a party invite and read a book. A book that I'd read before and wasn't very good."